Students who received the personalized AP message were more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number of exams, making them eligible for college credit¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr?·q2
Currency · newest study 2017 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? Students who received the personalized message were more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number of exams, making them eligible for college credit. → Naihobe Gonzalez 2017
q3 i? By the end of the academic year, students who received the signal were substantially more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number of exams, increasing their eligibility for college credit. → Naihobe Gonzalez 2017
Evidence¶
Naihobe Gonzalez 2017¶
Naihobe Gonzalez. (2017). Small Changes Make a Big Difference: How Behavioral Science Improved Participation in Advanced Placement (Issue Brief). Oakland, CA: Mathematica Policy Research. https://www.mathematica.org/publications/small-changes-make-a-big-difference-how-behavioral-science-improved-participation-in-advanced
q2 · i? · causal · r?
The brief's key findings state that message recipients "were more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number, making them eligible for college credit." No statistics, counts, or effect sizes are printed for these outcomes.
"These students were more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number, making them eligible for college credit."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Students who received a personalized message about their potential to succeed in AP coursework were 49 percentage points more likely to participate in AP classes than peers who did not receive the message — related
- Small changes in the way information is presented can have a large impact on a person's decision to participate in a program — a broader claim this one bears on
- Three of four DCPS high schools mandating AP enrollment had higher AP exam taking and passing rates after the mandate, but passing rates remained generally low — related
- Survey data indicate the ability signal had informational value, leading students to revise self-assessed ability and AP plans consistent with Bayesian learning — related
- Students who received the ability signal enrolled in and passed about one more AP course the following year — related
- The evidence base for offering a college-ready curriculum is rated low, with mixed findings on rigorous curricula and positive findings on AP course taking — related
- Most CTE students also participated in college-level coursework, though CTE students had slightly lower AP participation — related
- Students who were not surveyed for the study did not respond to the ability signal — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
personalized-ap-message-increases-exam-taking-and-passing |
aliases |
ability-signal-increases-ap-exam-taking |
title |
Students who received the personalized AP message were more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number of exams, making them eligible for college credit |
description |
Students who received the personalized AP message were more likely to take an AP exam and passed a higher number of exams, making them eligible for college credit |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2017 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-08 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — naihobe-gonzalez-2017 |
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